Whangeateau Evening

An evening down at the Whangeateau waterfront, near Leigh. While the kids where waiting for the local fish and chips, Amelia has an explore in the tidal pools.

Christmas Day

Shots of the kids enjoying the day, and of course, the presents.

Santa Parade

This weekend we took the kids to the Wellington Santa parade. It sure was hot but the kids enjoyed it.  

Some of the costumes where rather well done.

 And people seemed to be enjoying getting into the act.

More shots here.

Roses and Daisies

A shot of Lucy running on the back lawn. Lucy has taken to putting on a good sprint around the lawn for a 3 year old. The roses are doing their thing - and the daisies are running a bit wild right now.

Bit like Lucy.

Backcountry Road

There is a interesting road that links south of Ohakune and twists and turns through hilly farm land out to the road between Raetihi and Wanganui. Its a worthwhile road trip for an hour or so if you have the time.  Here is a shot descending into the road to Raetihi.

Back Bowls of Turoa - A Dozen Turns in Heaven

This is one of my favourite places on Mt Ruapehu. Since its so good, I'm not going to tell you how to get there. 

The great thing about this little bowl is its remoteness from the main Turoa ski area, its aspect to the sun and the snow it holds. Since its hard to get to people rarely go there. Since it has a south westerly aspect it hold good deep cold snow that also gets the sun in the afternoon to soften on spring days.

It holds a dozen turns of heaven - and not many people know about it.

School Holiday Ski Week

First weekend of the school holidays saw us up at Ohakune. Weather was patchy during the week with a bit of time on the snow mixed in with some off-day activities.


On the Thursday we headed over to Taupo for some lakes, waterfalls and other touristy things the kids love.  The kids enjoyed Huka Falls but the feeling I got was the thing they enjoyed the most was the simple act of hanging out by the lake and playing with the pummice rocks.

Playing on the shore of Lake Taupo

Lucy at Lake Taupo

Huka Falls

The kids made good progress on skis. Lucy continued to find and improve her balance in her first year of skiing. Meanwhile Amelia has been well and truley bitten by the snow bug. On the Friday she cracked the Movenpick for the first time and skiied top to bottom successfully. Not to finish there, on the Sunday she had another go on the Movenpick once again and then cracked her first run down the Giant. Again top to bottom successfully. Good way to end the trip.